Touchstone Labs: Growing Business and Sending West Virginia Coal Into Space
By Conor Griffith
February 12, 2019 - Off Interstate 70 in Ohio County, West Virginia lies a small technology park that looks rather unassuming from the road but has in fact developed new technologies that are shaping everyday items from bicycles to spacecraft.
There lies Touchstone Research Laboratories, a research and development firm which was started in the basement of a monastery by President and CEO Brian Joseph when he was doing analysis work for clients. It has since expanded and now counts a few other companies under its umbrella at the technology park in Triadelphia.
An aerial view of Touchstone Research Lab next to Interstate 70.
Those other companies are Touchstone Testing Laboratory, Touchstone Advanced Composites and CFOAM. Others are still in stages of development and are planned to launch later in the year. Together, these businesses employ almost 100 people and are the direct results of technological research.
“The plan is to keep doing this,” he said. “This is not that far off from Thomas Edison’s whole approach. He called his place the Invention Factory and what we basically have is an invention factory. Everything we’ve been spinning out, we invented this stuff.”
CFOAM molds are used to produce wings for unmanned aerial vehicles.
Joseph said about eight patent applications are in the works currently, with about one per month coming out.
While CFOAM is its own company, it started from and is a physical product of West Virginia coal. The substance is produced by grinding up coal, foaming it under pressure, heat treating and cutting it into the desired shape.
The end result is a very light material that can withstand temperatures of up to 6,296 degrees and immense pressure. A demonstration of CFOAM with a blowtorch left only a small scratch where the flame struck but no other damage. CFOAM handles heat so effectively, the demonstrator was able to do this without wearing any gloves.
“It’s made from coal so it’s very inexpensive. I think what makes it unique is you can cut the material over a broad range for its thermal properties, so it can be an insulator and it can also be fairly conducted,” explained Touchstone R&D Director Brian Gordon. “Most foams you’re familiar with are like sponges or styrofoams for packing that are pretty weak, but carbon foam is what we’d refer to it as structural foam.”
Metpreg, the world's strongest aluminum, was developed at Touchstone's Technology Park.
Gordon said CFOAM is now used for thermal protection systems. Before it came along, the space shuttles were using ceramic tiles which were heavier and brittle. However, CFOAM’s applications aren’t limited to replacing already existing products. The material allows for new uses that haven’t been attempted before.
“Using it as a material for tools or molds for making carbon composite parts on, that’s the big application for CFOAM right now,” he said, “but in the advanced R&D area, we’re looking at using it for thermal protection systems which is a combination of that and lightning strikes. Any system that would be launched for NASA or whatever, they’re always worried that there’s lightning nearby and won’t launch. This material combination could allow that to be taken out of the equation.”
CFOAM can now be found on spacecraft, airliners, navy and civilian ships, hulls for racing boats, fire-resistant building material and blast-proof structures. General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman and Bell Helicopter are among the more high-profile manufacturers of machines that now incorporate CFOAM.
Another innovation to come out of Touchstone is Metpreg, which is the world’s strongest aluminum, and has a multitude of potential applications. For example, Metpreg can be used construct bicycle frames that are just as strong as current commercial recumbent frames but at one-third of the weight.
Touchstone Research Laboratories R&D Director Brian Gordon holds MetPreg's continuous fiber reinforced aluminum recumbent bicycle frame.
Joseph said much of Touchstone’s success is due to the federal government’s Small Business Innovation Research program, which has helped fund the development of next generation technologies. About $2.5 billion is awarded through this program to businesses annually. Joseph said it’s one of those resources out there that is immensely helpful but not a lot of people seem to realize its available.
He said visits to the campus, and demonstrations of the technology there have gotten high school students from Brooke High School interested in STEM education and career fields.
Despite all of the achievements accomplished through the various companies, Joseph said this is actually part of the West Virginia’s forgotten history of technical prowess. Joseph noted that far too often, the state’s history is reduced to sides taken in a conflict whether it be the Civil War, Hatfield/McCoy feud or labor strikes.
As an example, Joseph pointed out that the petrochemicals revolution that led to plastic products, such as garbage bags and polyvinyl chloride polymer piping, among others, started in Kanawha County. In the Northern Panhandle, soda glassmaking methods were pioneered in the late 1800s which led to mass-produced jarred food and the world’s first automatic bottle making factories that employed hundreds of people.
The Metpreg frame of this bike is one-third the weight of the commercial recumbent frame.
“The catalytic converter used in automobiles was invented in West Virginia; it just goes on and on!” he said. “Egypt once led the world in science, technology and math but nobody talks about it anymore. That’s how you get kids excited.”